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Brief Literary Bio
Since 2003, my stories, essays, and poems have been published in various journals and anthologies. My book of dark stories, The Mud Lake Trilogy, was released in May 2014. I have received fellowships in literature from the Delaware Division of the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. I have received Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. I was a finalist in short-story in both the 2012 and 2015 William Faulkner/William Wisdom Creative Writing contests. I have won or been a finalist in many local and regional contests.
I served as a fiction editor for The Fox Chase Review in 2014 and 2015. I'm a co-host of 2nd Saturday Poets in Wilmington, Delaware, a monthly poetry reading series operating continuously for over 35 years.
I live near Bethel, Delaware in rural Sussex County along the beautiful Broad Creek
Fun Facts
I was born in Wilmington, Delaware and went to John Dickinson High School. I spent most summers of my early life in a remote part of Western Michigan on an abandoned boy's camp operated by my grandfather in the 1920's and 1930's. I served in the Navy's amphibious force during the Vietnam war. After leaving the service I earned a BS degree from the University of Delaware. I worked for Avon Products, Perdue Farms and Playtex Products where in 2007 I retired from my position as Vice President and CIO .
I have two kids, Christy and Todd, who, as of this update, are still the smartest and nicest people in the world. I built my own house, not with a contractor and checkbook but with a hammer and saw. I once raised chickens and pigs. I have a passion for fishing, especially fly-fishing in small streams. I like to hike in mountains (although the knees have not been cooperative lately). I like any kind of beer except Guinness. I like modernist, cubist, and impressionistic paintings from the 1900-1950's. I like to cook. I hate working-out but do most days so I can continue to eat all the things I like to cook. I enjoy woodworking and have built some of my own furniture. I like jazz, blues of any kind, old time American standards (e.g. Jimmy Rogers), anything Leonard Cohen has ever done.
I read a book a week and often find new authors I admire. Current favorites are: Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Cormac McCarthy, Tobias Wolff. Favorite dead guys: Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Raymond Carver, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty. Unfortunately, new to that list: Elmore Leonard, Jim Harrison and E. L. Doctorow. I am amazed by good poetry. I love Billy Collins' work and think Mary Oliver knew something about life that no one else did. What a shame she's gone now.
Favorite books: There are so many. To Kill a Mockingbird for sure. The Education of Little Tree. Recently: Barkskins, Annie Proulx's new masterpiece, The Overstory and All the Light We Cannot See.
My goal is to be recognized as a good writer and get my work published the old-fashioned way.